The Persistent Writers Hall of Fame: Adrian McKinty

This is an amazing story of a novelist who almost gave up his writer’s dream only to have a pair of established writers encourage him… and his persistence won the day. Big. Time.

This morning as I checked my email, I had a note from a long-time screenwriting colleague Shane Salerno. It read:

Paramount Makes 7-Figure Film Deal For ‘The Chain;’ A Life Changer For Uber Driver-Turned Hot New Author Adrian McKinty.

Shane included a link to a Deadline article. I clicked on it. Amazing story. Here are some highlights.

Paramount Pictures has acquired the screen rights to Adrian McKinty’s novel The Chain in a deal that calls for a guaranteed low-seven-figure payday for the author, an Uber driver until a series of deals for the book changed his life. The book will be published by Little Brown/Mulholland on July 9.

The Chain tells the story of Rachel, who learns that her 11-year-old daughter has been kidnapped. The only way to get her back is to kidnap another child. Her daughter will be released only when that next victim’s parents kidnap another child. If Rachel doesn’t kidnap another child, or if that child’s parents don’t kidnap a child, her daughter will be murdered. She is now part of The Chain, a terrifying and meticulous chain letter-like kidnapping scheme that turns parents from victims into criminals.

The book tells Rachel’s harrowing story as victim, survivor, abductor and criminal. What the masterminds behind The Chain know is that parents will do anything for their children. But what they don’t know is that in Rachel they have finally met their match, as she is smart and tough enough to have survived a bout with cancer and is determined to break The Chain while getting her daughter back.

The film will be produced by Shane Salerno and The Story Factory, which repped the author in the deal along with CAA.

So that’s where Shane comes in. Since he launched The Story Factory several years ago, Shane has evolved from screenwriter to literary maven. To this point, more from the Deadline article:

Quite a turn of events for McKinty, the son of a shipyard welder who grew up in a Belfast housing project during the “Troubles.” He was accepted at Oxford on full scholarship — first in his family to go to college — and wrote a bunch of books over two decades but not enough to support his wife and two daughters. To pay his bills, he did odd jobs from construction to picking up fares as an Uber driver. It wasn’t enough: He was evicted from his home because the book writing didn’t pay him a living wage. Frustrated, McKinty wrote a fan letter to Don Winslow, the author of bestsellers including The Cartel and The Force. McKinty described to Winslow as a fan, and his letter amounted to McKinty expressing regret that he himself had not been able to make it as a writer.

Winslow, who at one point found himself so frustrated by the paltry proceeds of his critically acclaimed books that hadn’t broken through that he pondered a return to an early side job as a safari tour guide, urged McKinty not to give up. He referred McKinty to Salerno, who with tough negotiating and brash marketing campaigns helped Winslow become a perennial bestselling author with several seven-figure movie and TV deals under his belt. Salerno, also a screenwriter who co-wrote the Avatar sequels, has collaborated with Winslow on adaptations of his books. When Salerno followed up, McKinty was reluctant and hung up more than once. Finally, Winslow and Salerno called together, learned McKinty had been evicted and was driving an Uber, and together they convinced him to give it one more try.

Imagine you’re a struggling writer and two successful writers contact you to encourage you to keep it up, don’t give up your dream, be persistent. On the heels of this massive book deal, McKinty said this:

“My story is a story of never giving up,” McKinty said in a statement. “It’s a story about writers helping fellow writers. I hope it inspires other writers who may be thinking about quitting, to never give up. I never imagined any of this could happen, but I hoped it would. I had hope. I am so grateful and I hope my story inspires others.”

I love this story for many reasons. First, it speaks to the importance of persistence as a key screenwriting trait. Indeed, I created The Persistent Writers Hall of Fame all the way back in August 2008 with this article.

Beyond that, it makes me happy that two writers I know — Shane Salerno and Don Winslow (you may read my Q&A with Don here) — took the time to encourage a struggling writer.

There are a lot of assholes in the entertainment business. And yes, some of them are writers. But in my experience, most writers are good people. They know very well the challenges which confront each and every one of us in our daily battle to create something out of nothing, putting words on the page, hoping they amount to something.

Well, Adrian McKinty’s words did amount to something in his novel “The Chain.” Good for him. Good for Shane. Good for Don.

And hope for each of us.

Takeaway: Be bold. Write from your creative gut. Keep your feet on the ground… and your head in the clouds.

And always be persistent.

As author Richard Bach said, “A professional writer is an amateur who didn’t quit.”

Onward!